The Come Back Kid

RUNNING HELPED TANIKO RETURN FROM A TRAGIC CYCLING ACCIDENT.

- Lisa Abdellah

THE WAKE-UP

In 2013, I broke my back in a cycling accident. A motorist took a chance at a robot on Klip River Drive, and I ended up T-boning her car. She probably saw, and heard, my body roll along the side of her car; and yet she chose to carry on driving.

The impact had crushed my L2 and L3 vertebrae, so I spent the next three days in ICU, followed by one month at home and four months wearing a back brace. I wasn’t able to walk around the supermarket, let alone exercise. Over the next two and a half years, I piled on weight.